Special Programming this Week

An hour-long Kwanzaa celebration in story and song, again hosted by Madafo Lloyd Wilson. This year's program features youth as the special guest griots, reading their own original and traditional stories. Familiar and favorite elements of Griot will also be in place with plenty of music, and an original composition by the show's poet laureate, Beverly Fields Burnette.

Toast of the NationMonday, December 31 9:00 p.m. - January 1 3:00 a.m.

An NPR tradition every New Year's Eve since the 1970s, Toast of the Nation features music you can party to, all night from coast to coast, with countdowns to midnight in each time zone. Spirited, improvised, grooving and swinging, each segment is a stop in a sequence of celebrations and contributing something new to the musical feast. WBGO's Rhonda Hamilton anchors the show. Our headliner Wynton Marsalis rings in 2013 Eastern Time playing the music of Louis Armstrong's Hot Fives & Sevens, live from Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, presented by Jazz at Lincoln Center.